As head of contracts and copyright at Central Independent Television, which became ITV's Midlands franchise holder in the 1980s, Rupert Dilnott-Cooper was given some of his biggest challenges by the producers of the satirical puppet series Spitting Image. His job was to protect Central from legal action, but he regarded the show as fun and always tried to find a way to ensure that its biting humour reached the screen.

If you’ve been to any of the bigger tourist attractions in the capital of late, you’ll know that the ticket prices at the Tower of London are criminal and the queues at the London Eye are enough to drive anyone to murder. But there’s plenty on offer for tourists who want to something a little bit different… and a good bit darker. My book, Criminal London, a Sightseer’s Guide to a Capital of Crime, gives the low-down on the capital’s low-life.

The Killing star Sofie Grabol has revealed that TV bosses tried to take away her alter ego's trademark woolly jumper and even put the hard-nosed Danish detective in heels for the new series of the hit TV drama - but that their plan backfired.

Empty car parks, unlit alleyways and deserted graveyards are among architectural situations which have been examined by artists for a new exhibition about the power of buildings to intimidate and unsettle.

A maul is a kind of mallet, which was used to club a family to death (baby included) in London's East End in December 1811. The country was plunged into a frenzy of fear. Twelve nights later, an elderly couple and their maid were found bludgeoned to death. Public opinion demanded a culprit, and an Irish seaman named John Williams, who lodged at the nearby Pear Tree inn, was arrested. With the trial still ongoing, Williams was found hanged in his cell, and posthumously convicted.

In 1180, a monk named Richard Devizes wrote of how he disliked London, a city filled with "jesters, smooth-skinned lads, Moors, flatterers, pretty boys, effeminates, pederasts, singing and dancing girls, quacks, belly-dancers, sorceresses, extortioners, night-wanderers, magicians, mimes, beggars, [and] buffoons." He concluded, "if you do not want to dwell with evil-doers, do not live in London."